Osinbajo’s state leads in federal appointments — Presidency

The Presidency, on Saturday, revealed that Ogun, the home state of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, had the highest number of Chief Executive Officers appointed to head federal agencies by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

This was contained in a graph made available to journalists by the Presidency to fault a recent media report that 81 out of 100 appointments made by Buhari are from the North.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, in making the document available, stated that Buhari's appointments were not lopsided in favour of the North as suggested by the media report.

The graph shows that on a scale of 0 to 25, Ogun State tops the list of states where the CEO hail from.

While Ogun State has 21 appointees, Imo and Kano states have 15 each.

Katsina, the home state of the President and Edo State share the third position with 14 each while they are followed by Anambra, Kogi and Kwara that have 13 each.

The document also shows that Kaduna has 12; Adamawa and Bauchi, 11 each, while Borno and Lagos have 10 each.

Benue, Delta, Niger and Osun states have nine each; Gombe and Jigawa have eight each; Rivers has seven while Bayelsa and Ondo have six each.

Cross River, Nasarrawa, Plateau, Taraba and Yobe have five each; Enugu, Ekiti, Akwa Ibom, Oyo, Sokoto and Zamfara have four each; Kebbi has three; while Ebonyi and Abia States have two each.

The FCT has nothing recorded against it on the graph.

The document revealed that out of the 299 appointments, the North got 164 while the South got 135.

Adesina described the report as a mischievous attempt to mislead the public and portray the Buhari administration in a bad light.

He said the writer unilaterally selected 100 appointees to drive home the distraction presented as "facts."

"To claim, suggest or attempt to insinuate that the President's appointments are tilted in favour of a section of the country is simply untrue and certainly uncharitable," Adesina said.

The presidential spokesman insisted that allegations of lopsidedness in the president's appointments were false.

He said, "From all records, the majority of the President's appointees across different portfolios are not from the North, as the publication erroneously alleged.

"If the publication did not have ulterior motives, a simple enquiry from official sources in the Presidency would have prevented this unwarranted public disinformation.

"It must be stated clearly that, despite the distractions and biased reportage of this article, President Muhammadu Buhari remains committed to serving all Nigerians, no matter the tribe, ethnicity or region, and he is also determined to ensure that Nigeria remains strong and united.

"He has, and will continue to keep faith with one Nigeria and has shown this with the administration's diverse projects in different parts of the country's geopolitical zones."